Natanya (Tany) Milner – Head of Primary

Welcome to Term 2. We look forward to another busy term ahead. Here are just some of the highlights:

Northern Territory

This week there is a group of 21 Emanuel Year 6 families in the Northern Territory. They are visiting some beautiful sites and Jilkminggan School. I look forward to hearing all about the people they have met and the lessons they have learnt. I am thrilled that our community continues to support this very special relationship and program.

Lice checks

It is unusual for me to report on ‘lice checks’ as a highlight but the reason I have included it is to show the impact of these termly checks. Before we began this program, we were finding never-ending cases of lice throughout the grades and throughout the year. Once we began the termly checks, we were sending home up to 30 children at a time but finding a reduced number of cases throughout the Term. This Term’s lice check provided a totally clear starting point with no cases of lice in the Primary School. What a fantastic result and thank you all for your support. A special thanks to Genna, our nurse, for conducting these checks so thoroughly.

Sport training

Years 4-6 begin early morning sport training this term at Queens Park. Please ensure that all the children arrive at 7.10 am each week in order to train with their teams.

Coding

We are committed to building 21^st century skills in our students. One of the many ways we are doing this is to build a new range of skills and dispositions. This term sees the introduction of our Coding program for Primary students. On Monday’s staff professional development day, the Code Camp team came to train the teachers about the coding program that they will be co-delivering to students in Years 2-6 over the next 2 terms. We are looking forward to introducing the coding program to our students and monitoring their progress.

This term Years 4, 5, 6 take part in the Coding program. Next term Years 2 and 3 will take part. Kindergarten and Year 1 will be taught later in the year by one of our wonderful Kindergarten teachers, Carrie Grieve.

Assessments

This term sees a number of our assessment programs taking place. Years 3 and 5 will be involved in NAPLAN assessments from 15-18 May. Year 4 students will sit the Allwell assessment on 25 May and the optional Year 3-6 ICAS Digital Technologies will take place on 8 May and ICAS Science will take place on 29 May.

Music Camp

Many of the Year 4-6 students are looking forward to Music Camp which takes place in the last week of Term 2 (from 2 July). This is such a special opportunity to be immersed in music and to have cross-age connections. The final concert is always a highlight of the year.

Of course, these are just a few examples of what lies ahead. There are many excursions and incursions for individual grades and wonderful learning programs that have been developed for our students. I wish everyone all the very best for a fantastic term and I look forward to sharing it with you all.

Exciting developments…

Chill Zone in the playground

I am excited to announce that we are beginning to work on a new area in the playground. In 2017, the Primary School Student Representative Council (SRC) requested a ‘chill zone’ in the playground for reading and quiet games such as chess and board games. This week, we began painting a mural in this area. It has been designed and painted by a past student, Ronan Collins. We will purchase board games, books, picnic rugs and bean bags. The SRC will again be involved in surveying students to select some of these items. I am pleased to be able to complete this project thanks to the funds raised in last year’s ‘a-thon’. I am so grateful for the generosity of our Emanuel community as well as the JCA. I look forward to keeping you informed of the progress in this area.

Hebrew and Specialist Learning Centre arrangement

We are thrilled to announce a new arrangement that we are able to put in place from this week. At times, the Specialist Learning Centre (SLC) has requested to withdraw some students from class time to provide additional input in areas of particular need. In some cases, withdrawing students from Hebrew lessons has been a challenge because the children were then required to re-enter the Hebrew program and were constantly feeling behind due to missing some lessons for SLC instruction. We have been endeavouring to create a solution to maximise English learning and also prioritise making the Hebrew time worthwhile and successful. We are excited to welcome Adi Gabrecht to our Hebrew teaching team as we trial a new program in Years 3 and 4 that allows for 3 of the 10 Hebrew lessons in a fortnight to be allocated to SLC instruction. The remaining 7 periods of Hebrew per fortnight will be taught by Adi who will teach a modified, self-contained Hebrew program to meet the children’s needs. We look forward to introducing this shared program as a trial and will continue to review the arrangement throughout 2018.

Change of date – Semester 2 Parent Teacher Nights

Due to some date changes and subsequent clashes, we have needed to change the dates for the Semester 2 Parent Teacher Nights. These will now take place on Monday 27 and Wednesday 29 August. The Year 6 Northern Territory Information Night will also change date. We will be in touch once a new date has been confirmed.

Mazal tov Allegra and Caitlin

I received a lovely email from Kids Giving Back to let me know about some fabulous work that has been done by Caitlin Ben-Mayor and Allegra Knoll. They were part of a team of volunteers who cooked, packaged and delivered over 400 warm, nutritious meals to local shelters and individuals in need. Caitlin and Allegra took part in the Community Cook4Good Holiday Program with their families and should be commended for giving up their time to help others. Thank you, Allegra and Caitlin, for your contribution and commitment to helping others.

…and a quick note on Gonski 2.0

Having a first read of the report shows 3 priorities:

• “Deliver at least one year’s growth in learning for every student every year
• Equip every student to be a creative, connected and engaged learner in a rapidly changing world
• Cultivate an adaptive, innovative and continuously improving education system”.

Underneath these 3 priorities lie 23 recommendations across 5 areas. There is a clear alignment between these findings and our goals at Emanuel. It is affirming to see how many of the recommendations we are already well down the path of actioning here. We have worked hard to create strong links with our community and seamless transitions through the School. We continue to prioritise foundation skills as well as creative and critical thinking and personal and social capabilities. We value teacher professional development and have a strong culture of staff learning. We are a school that regularly reviews its practices and have a culture of continuous improvement. We will read and watch with interest as we continue on this joyous path of educating young minds for an exciting future.

K-2 Assembly dates and details

If you are available and would like to attend your child’s class assembly item please meet us in the Millie Phillips Theatre at the end of lunch. We ask that you please sit towards the back of the Theatre to allow room for the K-2 students.

• Friday 18 May – 2 Yerushalayim
• Friday 1 June – 1 Beersheva

Wishing you all Shabbat Shalom and have a wonderful weekend.